War machine's assassination legacy lives on

Sunday

Nov 24, 2013 at 12:01 AMNov 24, 2013 at 1:00 AM

GEORGE MUMMERT

Fifty years ago, a conspiracy killed President John F. Kennedy because of his actions as a peacemaker. JFK's assassination was called for, enacted and covered up by people who felt betrayed by what they perceived as "traitorous" peacemaking actions. This essay characterizes the conspiracy by presenting the global context and consequences of Kennedy's assassination. It's also a call to action.

The global context of Kennedy's assassination is relevant to the question of motive. Just four months into his presidency, JFK made enemies when he refused to provide air cover and ground support troops for the April Bay of Pigs invasion, which was organized by CIA Director Allen Dulles and overseen by Vice President Richard Nixon. Kennedy fired Dulles for lying to him concerning the invasion and vowed "to smash the CIA into a thousand pieces."

With sinister cynicism, President Lyndon Johnson appointed the deceitful Dulles to the Warren Commission to tell the truth about Kennedy's death. Dulles would later tell a reporter, "That little Kennedy thought he was a god."

In October 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis, Kennedy was able to deter his hard-line Joint Chiefs of Staff, who were calling for a first strike of nuclear weapons on the Soviet Union. Kennedy knew the world had come close to a nuclear catastrophe. Air Force Chief Curtis LeMay said, "This is almost as bad as the appeasement at Munich."

On June 10, 1963, Kennedy gave his great commencement address at American University. He rejected "a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war." He also asked Americans to empathize with the Soviet Union's suffering during World War II. He argued, "At least 20 million lost their lives. Countless millions of homes and farms were burned or sacked. A third of the nation's territory was turned into a wasteland." He proclaimed a unilateral suspension of nuclear atmospheric tests and then ended by calling for "general and complete disarmament."

On Oct. 11, 1963, Kennedy signed the National Security Action Memorandum 263, which ordered the withdrawal of 1,000 military advisers from Vietnam before 1964 and the withdrawal of the remaining 16,000 by the end of 1965.

This global context demonstrates Kennedy had become a peacemaker who was making decisions many saw as traitorous and treasonable. The conspirators saw Kennedy disarming the country against a communist adversary that, in their opinion, could not be trusted. The military-industrial-intelligence complex saw its war profit machine being dismantled and view for the country being challenged. The conspirators decided to kill Kennedy and replace him with a more manageable president.

Kennedy's assassination resulted in two major global consequences. First, four days after the assassination, President Johnson rescinded Kennedy's orders to withdraw from Vietnam and signed NSAM 273, which laid the groundwork for escalation. On Christmas Eve 1963, Johnson told the Joint Chiefs of Staff at a White House reception, "Just let me get elected, and then you can have your war." Consider the hundreds of thousands killed, the millions maimed, the billions of dollars wasted and the national nightmare of the Vietnam years. They were all consequences of the assassination.

The second major global consequence was the escalation of the Cold War. Over the next 25 years, trillions of dollars were wasted on weapons of war.

Consider these words of Sergei Khrushchev, a son of Nikita Khrushchev: "I am convinced that if history had allowed them another six years, they would have brought the Cold War to a close before the end of the 1960s." Nikita Khrushchev, he said, "intended to sharply reduce Soviet armed forces from 2.5 million men to half a million and to stop the production of tanks and other offensive weapons."

Fifty years ago our president was allowed to be gunned down like a dog in Dallas. The conspiracy to act, to cover up and to control the globe has been successful. Until we, the people, find the courage to face the facts of that day and the past 50 years of global hegemony, we will continue to fail as responsible citizens entrusted with preserving and protecting the values of a great nation.

The wars will continue, our resources will not be used to create an equitable and just society, and the dreams of the peacemakers and the spirit of love that inspires them will continue to be crushed.

May new peacemakers, both within and without government, pick up the mantle stained with the blood of the martyrs and "seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly" upon this Earth.